500m Battery Problem

We have an inspiron 500m at work.  The laptop works great except for a battery issue.  The battery has a 1% charge right now and it will not charge any farther than that.  If i disconnect the a/c adapter, it turns off the laptop saying that the battery is critical.  I try to charge the computer when it is off, but it never charges.  The green light will come on for maybe 2 minutes, then it turns off.  When i turn the computer back on, it didn't charge at all.  I've been reading a lot of posts and it seems that many people are having this problem.  I've updated the bios, rolled back the bios, still no good.  Any one have any suggestions?